As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Information handling systems, such as personal computers, servers, laptop computer with docking stations, and other computer systems having a bus system for adapter cards are well known in the art. These computer systems typically include a CPU coupled with a plurality of on board devices, such as, a clock system, a timer unit, a plurality of memory modules, etc. Usually dedicated internal bus structures are used to exchange data between these modules and the CPU. Other logic is provided to couple the CPU with a high bandwidth local expansion bus, such as the peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus or the VESA (Video Electronics Standards Association) VL bus. These standardized bus systems comprise usually a number of slots wherein each of the slots is capable of receiving an extension card. Each extension card can comprise a plurality or a single peripheral device, such as, a video card, serial and/or parallel interfaces, high speed communication interfaces, etc. To this end, each slot provides a plurality of connection pins. Communication between a bus system and other peripherals or the CPU is usually limited to the defined hardware and the respective protocols specified for the specific bus system.
During initialization of a information handling system, all devices are usually identified and integrated into the operating system. To this end, each devices might comprise a specific identification code stored in an internal register or dedicated internal non-volatile memory. This identification code can include a manufacturer or vendor identification code (ID) including the name of the vendor or manufacturer of the respective device. Modem operating systems collect all these information and use it to display the different devices and their vendor/manufacturer ID, for example, during a boot-up sequence, a diagnosis routine or when a configuration program is run. To this end, the information code is stored in the main controlling chips or chip sets. Thus, a extension card for a peripheral bus, such as a PCI-slot card will identify the chip manufacturer or chip vendor ID of a specific extension card instead of the manufacturer of the card. This can lead to confusion with the user of the system.